Jonathan Hurley, 36, is an ceramacist who lives in Shepherds Bush
and works in a studio on a farm near Harefield. The studio
outside London allows him to 'make dust and noise without being
hassled by the neighbours', enjoy the glorious summer months where
he works 'mostly outside in the sun, chatting to the horses and
cattle' and make use of the space in which to contemplate and
sculpt. Hurley was bought up in the north of Essex, but his mother
regularly took him to London to look at exhibitions. Hurley
and his brother 'would often be building things in the garden, more
often than not, platforms in trees which they dubbed tree-houses'.
His brother studied ceramics at Camberwell College of Art and
Hurley 'often found himself on the phone to him with technical
questions. It was probably his and another good friend’s interest
in ceramics at school that led him to Gordon Baldwin’s studio'.
Hurley was educated at Eton College, where he met Baldwin, and then
did a Diploma in Fine Art at Wimbledon, followed by a degree in
History of Art at Edinburgh University.
We gathered Hurley's thoughts on his work and his design
philosophy:
My design philosophy is truth to, and indulgence in, materials. In
fact, my pieces, whether lamps or sculptures, are driven by the
material in which they are made. This can come in to play on a very
basic level, for example, in the decoration of the cone lamps: the
manganese dioxide (which is the black) is caught in the lines cut
into the piece which emphasises the plasticity of the clay
pre-firing and draws the viewer’s attention to the cuts in the
shaft of the piece. More obviously this philosophy can be seen in
the Institution series (pictured opposite) where the clay has been
folded by the force of the impression of the stamp on it and had
the pattern on the stamp passed onto its surface. Both of these
elements are highlighted by the manganese dioxide in the crevices
of the creases and in the depths of the impressions left by the
print of the stamp.
Was an introduction to ceramics by Gordon Baldwin,
instrumental in your choice of profession?
I suppose the question really is: “Would I have found sculpture and
ceramics if it weren’t for Baldwin”. I often wonder if I would have
become so enthusiastic about them so early if it hadn’t been
for him. His work is obviously amazing and to have the privilege of
working in the same studio as one of his pieces grows was
fantastic. It was also special to have his tuition at an age when
the brain is sucking up ideas and knowledge at an incredible rate.
His treatment of the material’s surface has obviously stayed with
me and I cannot lose my fascination with this aspect of ceramics.
So I think that being introduced to ceramics was definitely
instrumental in my choice of profession. When I am not in my studio
I am also to be found on advertising film sets as a director of
photography (
www.jonhurley.co.uk); this is a
profession which may also be attributed in part to Baldwin as he
encouraged my early enthusiasm for photography.
What fascinates you about ceramics and
sculpting?
I love being able to handle what I’m creating. Something from my
brain is acquiring plastic form through my hands. It is a piece of
my brain sitting on the table! Ceramics, as a part of sculpture, is
fascinating for me because of the transition which clay undergoes
in the kiln: it goes from being a soft, wet material to a hard,
cold object. The past attributes of clay as something soft in
contrast to its fired qualities of hardness and brittleness were
things that I was concerned about in my Squash pieces (opposite)
and Institution pieces, where the past softness is referred to by
the soft backing whilst the clay itself is so brittle warmth
of the materials are also something to which I refer in these
series as the warm fabric contrasts with the cold fired clay.
In my more current pieces I am fascinated by the similarity of
fired clay to bone, for example Spine (picture), and how this
contrasts with our soft flesh. This links with the contrast of
soft, wet clay and hard, dry fired ceramic.
Could you tell us about your lamps, the colours and
patterning employed?
I try to keep my lamps as simple as possible as so that they are
contribute to someone’s home rather than dominating it. I think
that there is quite a contrast between making sculpture and making
lamps as with sculpture one is drawing attention to the
object whereas with the lamps one is fulfilling a function
with an object in a beautiful (one hopes) way.
With my hand-crafted bespoke contemporary ceramic lamps I’m
attempting to fuse innovative techniques of creation with modern
design, combining simple shapes and decoration with a minimal
colour scheme. They have a contemporary look but are based in the
ancient craft of pottery. The lamps are based on six primary
designs: tall stripy cones, clay slabs wrapped into a conical
shape, piles of rocks, pyramids, Ancient Greek Amphoras, and
squashed blocks. They are designed with a view to fit into any
interior whilst also bringing an element of originality and
individuality to the room. They are meant to be a welcome addition
to the most cutting edge interior scheme as well as an
unobtrusive element in a down to earth setting.
The conical lamps seem to be a fusion of an elephant’s tusk with a
turned piece of rock. The stripes are lines created by oxides
caught in cuts in the clay created by resting a knife on the object
as it is turned by an adapted hand drill! These lines emphasise the
vertical nature of the piece whilst compartmentalising its organic
surface.
The wrap lamps are the most organic in this series of designs. They
are like a stiffened piece of clothing supporting a light. The seam
is deliberately visible and its frayed edge constitutes the primary
decorative element on the piece.
My Stone pile lamps are like precariously piled rocks which echo
Andy Goldsworthy’s natural sculptures. The rock elements are of
different sizes and shapes. The pyramid lamps have a spiral
oxide-filled line which emphasises their shape as it cuts deeper
into the four edges of the pieces than the centre. This has the
effect of giving texture in addition to those marks which are
brought about in the making process.
The squashed blocks have indentations on their sides which were
once squares and rectangles. These emphasise the compression of the
clay pieces as one can clearly see the transformation of the shapes
whose sides have become bent and folded. Oxides have also been used
in these pieces to pick out the edges of the shapes and any texture
which has been transferred when the indentations were
created.
The Ancient Greek Amphora designs use a traditional shape with
foliage decoration inspired by that used by the Greeks on vases:
black oxide applied on natural clay.All these lamps have a simple
colour scheme often using the natural colour of the clay combined
with markings brought about in the making process as a base for any
further decoration. The combination of a modern design with hand
craft forms a break from the norm where products of modern design
tend to be mass-produced and therefore often clinical looking while
hand-made things are either ethnic or with too much emphasis on
traditional design. Each item is an individual but they are similar
enough to allow paring and use in a unified interior scheme. They
are about 50 to 60 cms high, have chrome lamp-heads and black
wiring with a 13AMP plug.
Did you see yourself as a sculptor as a child, did you ever
experiment with making objects out of your explorations when
young?
Like all children, I immensely enjoyed making things with cardboard
boxes, but I don’t think that these things necessarily represented
anything; they were more environments than objects and I got
enjoyment from going inside them. Maybe one could see this as the
inverse of sculpture making as, in the cardboard environments, one
is putting oneself in an object, whereas in sculpture, one is
putting oneself outside an object which was once inside one. There
was also making things with “sticky-backed plastic” à la Blue Peter
which was naturally distracting but not by any means an obsession!
I can boast to have won a Fischer-Price colouring-in competition
when I was about 6; my mother still has it on the wall in her
kitchen! This is more relevant than it could have been as I won a
printing machine; maybe this is the source of my clay prints!
As I have already mentioned, my brother and I enjoyed making
treehouses. Could these have been a precursor to what I am
currently involved in with my work I am hanging in trees I
wonder?
Could you describe your institution series to us, you
mention that each piece is an individual - does it concern the loss
of innocence and how institutions born from modern society mould
you into a hardened form - different to that in childhood, the
world becomes smaller and we lose our identity?
The Institution series of pieces are wall pieces made up of a
number of clay blocks mounted on a cushioned fabric backing inside
a thick black frame. The clay blocks have prints pressed into the
clay which echo the pattern created by them in the shape of the
whole piece. They are concerned with texture, pressure, qualities
of cold and hard juxtaposed with warm and soft and these physical
attributes trigger philosophical concerns with mortality and
reproduction, identity, and the position of the individual in
society.
Everyone is unavoidably concerned with issues of mortality. This
issue is explored in the sculptures by the way that the clay
appears to be protected by its soft and warm backing which links to
the protection of a child in the womb. This is most obvious in the
Cushion series and is further emphasised by the sexual connotations
represented by the hard clay’s protrusion into the soft
cushion.
The pieces are concerned with the evolution of identity, expressed
through the stamping of marks on the pieces of clay. The clay was
malleable before it was fired, like us when we are young, in
childhood, and that was when it was stamped. Now the clay is hard
and no longer malleable, similar to the way grown up people are
less impressionable. The past softness of the clay is echoed
by the current softness of the surrounding fabric. All colour is in
the fabric, and the natural colour of the clay serves only to
increase the quality of coldness and hardness juxtaposed by the
softness of the fabric.
In the Institution series, each piece of fired clay is a microcosm
of the finished piece mounted within its frame. The viewer is
encouraged to view the piece as a whole but the detail of each
piece, draws one unmistakably to the fact that each clay bit is
individual. When humans are viewed en mass, we are unavoidably
objectified, especially when viewed as numbers. This
objectification is worrying as it can make people in positions of
power, or us when we watch the news, forget that in all these
numbers are actually individual humans.
Where do you draw your inspiration from?
Most of the inspiration for my pieces comes from the
characteristics of the materials themselves. In a way the pieces
are expressing their own existence as I am so involved in exploring
what it is with which I’m making the pieces. I also look around
myself at the world I see, usually the small details, and that
informs the work. I often see an interesting pattern on a wall or
in a piece of concrete or something like that and I’ll make a
sketch or take a note of it and it might form into an idea. A trip
to the Victoria and Albert museum has recently inspired me
tremendously. I find that inspiration from a trip to a museum comes
more from a combination of a number of stimuli rather than from one
specific piece, but definitely looking at art, past and present, is
important sustenance for my work.
The interconnected threads that bind elements in your
hanging series are visually dramatic, could you tell us about the
series and what it expresses?
My Hanging pieces are a series of monochromatic fired ceramic
pieces supported by multicoloured cotton thread. The ceramic
pieces were produced by rolling the unfired clay between sections
of cloth, and the resulting pattern creates unique markings on each
of the ceramic pieces. These crevices were filled with
manganese oxide which resulted in a brown black colour post firing.
The fired ceramic pieces are then assembled in a vertical
formation one above the other, each supported by alternating
coloured threads. These threads are in turn supported by
a wooden projection which is attached to the wall.
One can see the recurring theme of the individual in society
through the use of these materials. The thread represents
society and the fired ceramic represents the individual. Each
of the pieces of fired ceramic has unique markings and shape, just
like individual humans in society. The string supports these
ceramic pieces and also passes through them, but it also seems to
cut into them. This is similar to the way society supports us and
also passes through all aspects of our life, but also suppresses
us.
Hanging could be likened to a deconstructed human spine. The
spinal cord, which runs all the functions of the body, runs down
the middle of the spine. In this piece, the cords which support the
construction run through the centre of the elements which make it
up. These threads are the core of this piece; the spinal cord is
the core of a spine; society is the core of contemporary living.My
Garden Hanging series is the series of pieces on which I’m
currently working. The issues that they conjure up are only really
connected with the Hangings in that they are concerned with
anthropomorphism and they are connecting humans to nature through
their garden setting. It is a (human?) backbone in nature. As they
are work in progress it is difficult to express verbally what I am
doing, but I know that, aesthetically, I’m very pleased!
Is the texture and tactile nature of sculptures and lamps
important to you?
The texture and tactile nature of the sculptures and lamps are very
important to me. Because I am so interested in the materials to the
point that the pieces actually seem to express the materials, the
texture is very important as it, in turn, expresses the quality of
the material. I feel that an important concern of sculpture is the
fact of it being a solid thing and this is expressed by it being a
mass and by any cuts into the piece, which give rise
to texture, also draw attention to its solidity.
In the Squash pieces and the Institution pieces it is the different
tactile quality of the two materials, fabric and fired ceramic, and
the contrast they set up which express the major concerns of the
pieces. I seem to be moving away from contrasting materials in my
recent Garden Hangings, for example Spine, which have only one
primary material. In these pieces I am presenting ceramic in a way
that could be seen as alien to it as the piece as a whole is bendy
whilst fired ceramic itself is stiff. Spine moves in the wind: this
is a quality we do not expect of an object made of ceramic.
Tell us about merging the use of ceramic, fabric, threads
and other medium?
I think I first started mixing ceramic with other materials when I
was still at school! I originally made ceramic vessels. Mixing
materials came about because I thought that the presentation of the
ceramic vessels was a very important aspect of the work. The first
piece I treated in this way was a tall “vessel” riddled with holes
which I mounted suspended in a metal cube. From here I started
making ceramic candle-sticks each with their own wooden, stone or
plaster stand; next I made vessels on a stand which I then placed
in a stream so that only the vessel and a small bit of the stand
was visible above the water level. The next move was the idea of
fusing drawing and sculpture by making papier-mâché clay and, after
firing, these delicate items had to be mounted on the wall, so I
started involving myself in the question of how they could be
mounted which then started to involve thread and fabric.
That is the history of how I got into doing what I have been doing
for the last few years. One can even see the mix of materials
creeping into my lamp work, most obviously in Still Lamp which is a
direct quotation from one of my earlier sculptures, Homage to
Clifford Still1. The reasons we have covered: the contrast between
cold, hard clay and warm, soft fabric.
What plans do you have for the coming year?
This is an exciting year for me because I feel my Garden Hangings,
on which I am still working, are a departure as they are moving
from the mixture of materials into and involvement in one primary
material, fired ceramic, and then playing with its qualities. I am
going to fully explore fired ceramic in an outdoor setting and then
carefully document these pieces. I hope that the photographs may
become pieces in their own right which I hope will lead to an
exploration of medium in a similar way to that in which my earlier
pieces explored materials.
I am also excited by my lamps as I have recently done a commission
in oak which I found deeply satisfying and I am hoping that
this may lead to more pieces in wood.
www.jonathanhurley.co.uk
Photographs supplied with kind permission by Jonathan Hurley,
Copyright © Jonathan Hurley
Interview by Nardip Singh